There are scheduled to be 26 players in camp for USA Basketball starting June 14 to contend for spots on the team that will compete in the FIBA U19 World Championship. Only 12 players can make the trip to Prague, so some very good college basketball players are likely to be disappointed when the final roster is announced. We know that barring any unforeseen circumstances, Oklahoma State point guard Marcus Smart will be one of them. He is not getting cut. That is not happening.

It’s likely the second-safest player in camp is someone who’s far less known: 6-10, 265-pound Jahlil Okafor of Whitney Young High in Chicago. Young is the only true center on the roster. The only taller player is 6-11 Mike Tobey of Virginia, who averaged 6.8 points in 14 minutes per game as a freshman and is considered more of a face-the-basket player.

Sean Ford, men’s national team director, told Sporting News that USA Basketball often likes to take just one true post player to international competitions. That way, the team is covered in case the opposing team has a big guy. But our national teams often play without one because “we’re better defensively at being able to switch on screens, offensive rebounding and keeping the lane as clear as we can so guys can penetrate,” Ford said.

Okafor is one of the top prospects in the 2014 recruiting class. He is rated No. 1 by ESPN.com. He played last summer on the U17 world championship team and was the second-leading scorer, producing 13.6 points per game to go along with 8.3 rebounds.

Ford is pleased that the group of players who’ve accepted invitations to the June 14-19 training camp includes so many experienced collegians. For instance, point guard Ryan Arcidiacono played 34 minutes per game for a Villanova team that reached the NCAA Tournament. Power forward Montrezl Harrell played important minutes on the way to Louisville’s national title.

“We have an awful lot of players who played an awful lot of minutes for teams that won a lot of games,” Ford said. “They’ve been coached. They’ve played impactful minutes. Those are the types of things that get you ready for a tournament like this.”